Take Action to Prohibit Dangerous Gun Bump Stocks in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Senate is taking up an important bill to prohibit bump stocks in New Hampshire, like the one used in the horrific shooting in Las Vegas that allowed the shooter to make a semi-automatic rifle shoot like a machine gun and fire more bullets, in less time. Advocates are needed to attend the public hearing and contact State Senators in advance of the committee and floor votes (vote dates are not yet scheduled).

Public Hearing on SB 492, Prohibiting Bump Stocks in New HampshireThursday, January 25 at 1:20 PMSenate Judiciary CommitteeState House Room 100, 107 N. Main Street, Concord

This bill establishes a misdemeanor offense for the manufacture, sale, possession, or use of a multiburst trigger activator, known as a “bump stock.” Please join us to provide public testimony, in person or in writing, or to sign in support of the bill. If you cannot attend the hearing, you can send written testimony to zandra@granitestateprogress.org by 12 noon on Thursday, January 25th for submission. We also need emails and phone calls to committee members encouraging them to pass this bill, and letters to the editor in support of it. We have included a few talking points below, and are happy to help review draft testimony or letters to the editor.

Please note that everyone should contact the committee members. We have only included their districts for reference. This action will remain open until the committee vote, which is currently not scheduled. You should also call your own Senator to advocate on your behalf with the committee. If you do not know who your Senator is or need contact information you can use this link to look it up: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/Senate/members/wml.aspx

New Hampshire isn’t the only place bump stocks are being reviewed. Learning about this deadly device led to public outrage and calls to ban this accessory, but still Congress did nothing. Now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is deciding if these dangerous devices that make firearms imitate machine guns should be banned. Before they do, they want to hear what the American public thinks. It is important for us to generate as many comments as possible before the comment period ends Thursday, January 25 at 11:59 pm EST. We have included a sample comment below.

It’s important to act now on these two important gun violence prevention advocacy opportunities. Lives depend on it. Thank you in advance for all you do.

SB 492 TALKING POINTS

Feel free to use this as a basic email or phone call to State Senators, or pair it with our how to draft testimony or how to write letters to the editor guides to create your own testimony or letter. Many thanks to Newtown Action Alliance for some of the sample language.

Banning bump stocks should be a no brainer. There is absolutely no justification for anyone to own these dangerous rapid-fire accessories.

Bump stocks are a dangerous accessory used to convert a semi-automatic assault rifle into a fully automatic rifle. These devices are intended to circumvent the restrictions on possession of fully automatic firearms in the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the National Firearms Act of 1934.

While often marketed as a novelty item for recreational shooters, bump stocks and similar devices that accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm are extremely dangerous and pose a substantial risk to public safety.

The Sandy Hook shooter used an AR-15 and 30-round magazines to fire 154 rounds in five minutes to kill 20 children and six educators. The Las Vegas shooter used a semi-automatic assault rifle with high capacity magazines and bump stocks to fire 1,100 rounds in 11 minutes to kill 58 people and injure 500 others. Imagine if the Sandy Hook shooter used bump stocks with his AR-15 and 30-round magazines on that tragic day five years ago.

To guard against a mass shooting on the devastating scale of Las Vegas, New Hampshire must act to ban bump stocks.

In doing so, we will be joining states across the country and politicians from both parties who are actively working to pass similar state legislation amid Congressional inaction.

I urge the NH State Senate to protect our communities and pass SB 492.

ATF SAMPLE PUBLIC COMMENT

Feel free to directly copy and paste this sample comment into the form on the Federal Register page. Many thanks to the Giffords Coalition for sample language.

On the night of October 1st, 2017, a gunman opened fire from a hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel into the 22,000 person crowd at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 58 people and injuring more than 500. The gunman fired more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition in 11 minutes, using semi-automatic rifles modified with a dangerous firearm accessory designed to dramatically accelerate the rate of gunfire, commonly known as “bump fire stocks.”

These devices are intended to circumvent the restrictions on possession of fully automatic firearms in the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the National Firearms Act of 1934 by allowing an individual to modify a semi-automatic rifle in such a manner that it operates with a similar rate of fire as a fully automatic rifle. While often marketed as a novelty item for recreational shooters, bump stocks and similar devices that accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm are extremely dangerous and pose a substantial risk to public safety.

To fully protect American communities from another mass shooting on the devastating scale of Las Vegas, Congress must act to ban bump stocks and other similar firearm devices or accessories. In the absence of action by Congress, ATF should issue a new rule clarifying that the definition of “machine gun” in the National Firearms Act of 1934 includes conversion devices like bump fire stocks that convert a semi-automatic rifle into the functional equivalent of a fully automatic rifle.

In creating this rule, ATF must take into account the toll of gun violence on communities like Las Vegas, in terms of injuries, loss of life, and the financial loss to businesses in the communities that are affected. The continued presence of these dangerous devices poses a continuing threat to all of our communities and both Congress and ATF must take action quickly to address this threat to public safety.